Conventionally, tracked vehicles comprise a set of wheels on each side of the vehicle that run in an endless track. During the operation, the track picks up materials such as snow, ice, mud, soil, rock, gravel and other similar debris (hereinafter “debris”) from the ground and carries them into the wheels where they often become packed between the inner surface of the track and the wheel. In the case of elastomeric tracks, this can result in de-tracking of the track from the wheels.
There exist some devices to scrape debris from the wheels and/or tracks of tracked vehicles.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,637,603 issued to Cartlidge on May 5, 1953, disclosed a muck stripper to remove debris from the inner surface of the track. The stripper generally comprises a ring mounted around a wheel and fixedly attached to the frame of the vehicle via a rigid member. The ring further comprises a deflector positioned near the inner surface of the track for effectively deflecting debris away from the track as they approach the wheel. Though effective to remove debris from the inner surface of older models of tracks, the stripper is not particularly adapted to newer track designs. Indeed, since the stripper is rigidly mounted to the vehicle to prevent movement of the deflector, the stripper cannot follow the movements of the wheel. Additionally, the stripper is not bi-directional
U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,703 issued to Norman on Jul. 13, 1993 disclosed an idler roller mounting/scraper for track vehicle which includes mounting bracket with two sets of teeth on opposite sides of the roller in order to scrape and remove mud and debris. While this device may be suitable for the particular purpose which it addresses, the design of this device is very complex.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,683 issued to Arulandu et al. on Dec. 16, 1997 disclosed a biased scraping apparatus for an idler which provides a scraper assembly that defines a plurality of scraping portions that are adapted to carry a scraping insert on an end portion thereof. While this device may be suitable for the particular purpose which it addresses, the design of this device is relatively intricate and significantly costly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,292 issued to Keedy et al. on May 10, 1998 disclosed a scraping apparatus for a track idler which provides a scraper assembly that defines a plurality of scraping portions that continuously engage the contact surfaces of the idler to remove foreign material therefrom before the contact surfaces engage other track chain components. While this design may be operated with some success, this design is subject to severe wear.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,443 issued to Freeman on Feb. 1, 2000 disclosed a debris cutter for sprocket drive which has stationary cutter blades fixed to a chassis of the tractor to cut refuse entrained between the sprocket and the chassis. While this device may be suitable for the particular purpose to which it addresses, it is operative only during one-way rotation of the wheel.
Notwithstanding the foregoing prior art, it is more effective to deflect debris and/or to reduce the accumulation thereof in the wheels instead of having to scrape and remove the debris later. Thus, there is a need to develop a device to deflect debris and/or reduce the accumulation thereof in the wheels of tracked vehicles. Furthermore, there is a need for such an apparatus that applies very little pressure on the wheels in contrast to existing scraper solutions.